I don't post very often but I thought compelled to add to this one. Sorry for the length.
I graduated with a masters in chemical engineering (5 year program) and took a job with a very large pharmaceutical company after college. The beuracracy was overwhelming. I remember two months in, after I had finally finished all the SOPs and started actually performing my job i had an existential crisis in my cubicle. One of those where I was just asking myself "is this what I will be doing with the rest of my life? Is this what I spent 5 years in college working for, a job I hate with more red tape than I can stand?" Needless to say it was a pretty low point. Luckily my opening position allowed me to rotate through a few different areas so I always had hope of going to a better department / plant. About a year into my job I took my first major vacation visiting a college friend who was in the peace corps. She introduced me to MMM and my life started evolving.
Once I got back, I started supercharging my finances and looking at what marketable skills I could extract from my positions. I had the opportunity to move to NC and work in operations so I took it 1) for the low cost of living 2) it was the fastest way to get management experience. In the beginning, I enjoyed operations especially working with the blue collar guys in a non-union plant (previous plants were all union). However after a while our bonuses and pay started getting frozen and the path i was going to take into an 'official management position' was eliminated by 're-orginization' and downsizing so I again felt the bureaucracy and bullshit walls closing in.
I knew I always wanted to get into real estate investing and development. I had been interested in investing and day traded through college for some extra cash but I knew it wasn't for me. I researched as much as I could on Real Estate and I started reaching out to my college friends and my network. As it happens my good friend in college had the year earlier left his job at GS to help run his family real estate business in Seattle. They were planning on doing a lot of remodeling but he had broken his back in a ski accident so he wouldn't be able to do much lifting. I expressed my dissatisfaction at my current job and he offered me a place on one of his work crews and his Dad would give me a crash course in apartment investing.
I took stock of my current situation. I'd been pretty frugal but after finding MMM, my savings boosted to crazy levels and I had enough to easily cover expenses for a few years and a good amount to potentially invest. I also knew I was unsatisfied at my engineering job and I didn't want my boss's position. After a lot of thought and realizing that engineering wasn't for me I made the leap. I knew Seattle would be a transition step but I didn't know where I would end up. I spent 7 months in Seattle remoddelling apartments and learning a lot about managing and buying apartments. I also reached out to everyone I could for advice and informational interviews so I could start making my next move.
Shortly after Seattle, I came back home for some time with the family and then started targeting REIT analyst positions. I chose REITs because I wanted to get more practice analyzing and developing properties. I worked my network again and through a family friend landed an interview with a few REITs. Eventually, I got an analyst position in a small Industrial REIT 5 miles from where I currently live with a salary comparable to what I was getting payed as an engineer in NC.
So that is my story, it was a long and winding road but eventually it all worked out. I know not everyone will be able to do it like me. I have no kids or wife, my family was very supportive of my transition, my jobs payed pretty high salaries throughout my career (except Seattle), and my network really helped me. It was still tough and there was a lot of uncertainty in there, honestly though I can't describe what a relief it was to quit that engineering job. Even though I was not sure where I was going to end up, I felt a weight lift as soon as I walked out of that plant in NC. I remember before I was about to take the leap I was reading a lot and I found a quote from Tim Ferris on Zen Pencils:
http://zenpencils.com/comic/142-timothy-ferriss-someday/ which really helped inspire me to just do it.
The only thing I would have done different is kept my job for a little longer and taken some of those informational interviews while I was still on the payroll instead of getting payed peanuts in Seattle. However I do not regret leaving my position for a second. I start my new position on Monday with the REIT and honestly couldn't be more excited.
MMM may be all about retiring early, but the biggest thing for me has been the confidence in knowing I could survive for years financially while I pursued the career I really wanted. I am pretty young, so early retirement may still be in the picture but I really want to try my hand at development in a few years.
Hope my story helps and best of luck.